British TV station ITV doesn't like Apple's "iTV" name

The UK television network ITV has issued a fair warning to Apple saying that it will not allow the company to call its upcoming TV set the "iTV."

The iTV name has been used widely throughout the media to refer to the Apple-branded TV expected to be released this year.

Of course, not only has Apple never used that name itself, it hasn't even officially announced that it is working on a TV set.

Apple fans may remember that several years ago when rumors first began circulating about the Apple TV set-top box, people referred to it as the iTV.

And back then, ITV also issued the same kind of statement warning that it would take action if Apple used the "iTV" name.

There's a lot of scuttlebutt that the iTV, or whatever it will be called, will be powered by Siri, the voice-activated platform that has captured the imaginations of iPhone 4S owners.

The idea of "smart TV" has not caught on like wildfire in the same vein of smartphones. Google's platform, Google TV, has failed to draw a lot of attention though the company did just release a sweeping firmware update and expects to unveil big things at CES in January.

Meanwhile, Apple's attempts in living room dominance before, from its bungled video game system to the first iteration of the Apple TV set-top box, have been commercial failures as well.

But Jobs seemed to be convinced that he knew what would work, and it is that vision that we'll see in 2012, if the reports are to be believed.